NYS Common Core ELA & Literacy Curriculum
12.1.2
Grade 12 • Module 1 • Unit 2 • Lesson 5
Lesson 5
Introduction
In this lesson, students conclude their reading of “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit.” Students
read paragraphs 25–32 (from “The old stories demonstrate the interrelationships that the Pueblo
people have maintained” to “Yellow Woman and all women are beautiful”), in which Silko discusses
Kochininako, Yellow Woman, and how her beauty and courage saved her people in the old-time stories.
Student learning is assessed via a Quick Write at the end of the lesson: Analyze how Silko uses and
refines the meaning of the term beauty over the course of the text.
For homework, students respond briefly in writing to the following prompt: Analyze how Silko provides a
conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course
of the narrative. In addition, students look over their notes and annotations in preparation for the Endof-Unit Assessment.
Standards
Assessed Standard(s)
RI.11-12.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and
refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how
Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
Addressed Standard(s)
W.11-12.3.e
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective
technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced,
observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.
W.11-12.9.b
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and
research.
b. Apply grades 11–12 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and
evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of
constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning [e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court
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NYS Common Core ELA & Literacy Curriculum
Grade 12 • Module 1 • Unit 2 • Lesson 5
Case majority opinions and dissents] and the premises, purposes, and arguments in
works of public advocacy [e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses]”).
L.11-12.4.a
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and
phrases based on grades 11–12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of
strategies.
a. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word’s
position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
Assessment
Assessment(s)
Student learning is assessed via a Quick Write at the end of the lesson. Students respond to the
following prompt, citing textual evidence to support analysis and inferences drawn from the text.

Analyze how Silko uses and refines the meaning of the term beauty over the course of the text.
High Performance Response(s)
A High Performance Response should:

Identify how Silko defines beauty in this excerpt (e.g., Silko writes, “the old-time people were not
so much thinking about physical appearances. In each story, the beauty that Yellow Woman
possesses is the beauty of her passion, her daring, and her sheer strength to act when
catastrophe is imminent” (par. 26).).

Discuss how the meaning of this term is used, refined, and reinforced throughout the essay (e.g.,
This definition of beauty, as well as its portrayal in Yellow Woman, finally explains the title of the
essay. It also reinforces what Silko asserts earlier in the text, when she writes, “Beauty was as
much a feeling of harmony as it was a visual, aural, or sensual effect” (par. 13). In other words,
beauty is not limited to physical beauty; it also includes inner beauty. Silko relates this definition
of internal beauty to herself, and claims that it helped her “[learn] to be comfortable with [her]
differences” (par. 30), which were largely physical.).
Vocabulary
Vocabulary to provide directly (will not include extended instruction)

cosmology (n.) – a particular account of the origin or structure of the universe

uninhibited (adj.) – not restrained by social convention or usage; unconstrained
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NYS Common Core ELA & Literacy Curriculum
Grade 12 • Module 1 • Unit 2 • Lesson 5
Vocabulary to teach (may include direct word work and/or questions)

spectrum (n.) – complete range of things

sensuality (n.) – the enjoyment, expression, or pursuit of physical, esp. sexual, pleasure
Additional vocabulary to support English Language Learners (to provide directly)

deeds (n. pl.) – something that is done; an act or action

courage (n.) – the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous

famine (n.) – a situation in which many people do not have enough food to eat

drought (n.) – a long period of time during which there is very little or no rain
Lesson Agenda/Overview
Student-Facing Agenda
% of Lesson
Standards & Text:

Standards: RI.11-12.4, W.11-12.3.e, W.11-12.9.b, L.11-12.4.a

Text: “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit” by Leslie Marmon Silko,
paragraphs 25–32
Learning Sequence:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Introduction of Lesson Agenda
Homework Accountability
Reading and Discussion
Quick Write
Closing
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Materials

Student copies of the Short Response Rubric and Checklist (refer to 12.1.1 Lesson 1)
Learning Sequence
How to Use the Learning Sequence
Symbol Type of Text & Interpretation of the Symbol
10%
Percentage indicates the percentage of lesson time each activity should take.
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5%
20%
55%
15%
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NYS Common Core ELA & Literacy Curriculum
Grade 12 • Module 1 • Unit 2 • Lesson 5
Plain text indicates teacher action.
Bold text indicates questions for the teacher to ask students.
Italicized text indicates a vocabulary word.
Indicates student action(s).
Indicates possible student response(s) to teacher questions.
Indicates instructional notes for the teacher.
no
symbol



Activity 1: Introduction of Lesson Agenda
5%
Begin by reviewing the agenda and the assessed standard for this lesson: RI.11-12.4. Inform students
that in this lesson, they read the end of “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit,” paragraphs 25–32,
and focus on how Silko uses and refines the term beauty over the course of the text.
 Students look at the agenda.
Activity 2: Homework Accountability
20%
Instruct students to take out their responses to the previous lesson’s homework assignment. (Write a
list of ideas about how you would respond to the following college interview question. Remember to
keep in mind your task, purpose, and audience as you consider your response. To respond to the
interview question, you should conduct brief online searches for information about a college that
interests you. What can you contribute to our college campus?)
Instruct students to form pairs to ask and answer the college interview question. For this practice
session, students should focus on giving examples to support their statements about themselves.
 Students practice asking and answering the college interview question.
 Instruct students to keep their interview preparation notes in a writing journal or folder as a
portfolio of their interview preparation throughout the module.
Instruct students to take out their responses to the second homework assignment. (Respond briefly in
writing to the following prompt: Analyze how Silko uses precise words and phrases, telling details, and
sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.)
Instruct students to talk in pairs about their responses to the prompt.
 Student responses may include:
o
Silko writes, “But I did not see any signs of that strain or anxiety in the face of my beloved
Grandma A’mooh” (par. 2). Hearing that there are no “signs of that strain or anxiety in the
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NYS Common Core ELA & Literacy Curriculum
o
Grade 12 • Module 1 • Unit 2 • Lesson 5
face” helps to create a vivid picture of a child looking at her “beloved Grandma A’mooh”
(par. 2).
Silko writes, “They handled the ladders with great ease, and while two women ground the
adobe mud on stones and added straw, another woman loaded the hod with mud and
passed it up to the two women on ladders, who were smoothing the plaster on the wall with
their hands” (par. 13). Here, we can see that the memory is “vivid,” as Silko states, because
she remembers even the smallest details and conveys them in precise words and phrases,
such as the “stones” and “straw,” and how the “two women … smooth[ed] the plaster on
the wall with their hands” (par. 13).
Activity 3: Reading and Discussion
55%
Instruct students to form pairs and review the entire text, identifying and annotating Silko’s references
to beauty throughout the text. Remind students that annotating helps them keep track of evidence they
use later in this lesson assessment, which focuses on the use and refinement of a term.
 Consider drawing students’ attention to their application of standard W.11-12.9.b through the
process of drawing evidence from the text to support reflection and analysis.
 Differentiation Consideration: Consider posting or projecting the following guiding question to
support students throughout the lesson:
What does Silko write about beauty?
 If necessary to support comprehension and fluency, consider using a masterful reading of the focus
excerpt for the lesson.
Lead a brief whole-class discussion about the ways Silko defines beauty and the examples she uses to
support her definition.
Post or project the following questions for students to discuss. Remind students to continue to annotate
their texts as they read.
Instruct students to read paragraphs 25–32 (from “The old stories demonstrate the interrelationships”
to “Yellow Woman and all women are beautiful”).
Provide students with the following definitions: cosmology means “a particular account of the origin or
structure of the universe” and uninhibited means “not restrained by social convention or usage;
unconstrained.”
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NYS Common Core ELA & Literacy Curriculum
Grade 12 • Module 1 • Unit 2 • Lesson 5
 Students may be familiar with these words. Consider asking students to volunteer definitions before
providing them to the class.
 Students write the definitions of cosmology and uninhibited on their copies of the text on in a
vocabulary journal.
 Differentiation Consideration: Consider providing the following definitions for students: deeds
means “something that is done; an act or action,” courage means “the ability to do something that
you know if difficult or dangerous,” famine means “a situation in which many people do not have
enough food to eat,” and drought means “a long period of time during which there is very little or
no rain.”
 Students write the definition of deeds, courage, famine, and drought on their copies of the text
or in a vocabulary journal.
What does the fact that “women appear as often as men in the old stories as hero figures” suggest
about Pueblo culture (par. 25)?
 It is important that “women appear as often as men … as hero figures” because in the old
stories, “the status of women is equal with the status of men” (par. 25). Their equality in the
stories represents their equality in reality.
In what way do Yellow Woman’s deeds “span the spectrum of human behavior” (par. 25)? What is the
meaning of spectrum in this context?
 Yellow Woman’s deeds are “mostly heroic acts,” but in one story, “she chooses to join the secret
Destroyer Clan,” which is not heroic (par. 25); it is destructive and irresponsible. Because these
two things are so different, and because “span” means to extend across, spectrum means the
entire range of something.
 Consider drawing students’ attention to their application of standard L.11-12.4.a through the
process of using context to make meaning of a word.
Why do the old-time stories “celebrate” “uninhibited sexuality” (par. 25)?
 The old-time stories celebrate Yellow Woman’s “courage" and her “uninhibited sexuality”
because “fertility was so highly valued” (par. 25). Sexual freedom and fertility are important to
the Pueblo people because they believe that “[n]ew life [is] so precious” (par. 20).
How is Yellow Woman “beautiful” (par. 26)? How does the example of Yellow Woman refine what
Silko means by beauty?
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NYS Common Core ELA & Literacy Curriculum
Grade 12 • Module 1 • Unit 2 • Lesson 5
 According to Silko, “the old-time people” considered Yellow Woman beautiful, but they “were
not so much thinking about physical appearances” (par. 26). Instead, they were thinking of “the
beauty of her passion, her daring, and her sheer strength to act when catastrophe is imminent”
(par. 26). In this way, Yellow Woman is beautiful because of her spirit, not her physical
appearance. By telling this story, Silko further refines the meaning of beauty by emphasizing
once again that beauty, for the Pueblo people, is an inner beauty, not an external appearance.
In the story Silko recounts in paragraph 27, how does beauty influence Yellow Woman? What is the
outcome of her actions?
 Student responses should include:
o
o
In this story, Yellow Woman’s people are suffering from “drought and accompanying
famine,” so she is out to “find fresh water for her husband and children” when she
encounters “a strong, sexy man in buffalo-skin leggings” (par. 27).
She is taken by his physical beauty, and when she acts on this attraction, it ultimately saves
her people because the Buffalo People “agree to give their bodies to the hunters to feed the
starving Pueblo” (par. 27).
How does the story of Yellow Woman and Buffalo Man exemplify Yellow Woman’s beauty?
 Yellow Woman is taken by Buffalo Man and “falls in love with [him]” (par. 27) even though she
has a husband. The relationship she has with him helps her provide meat for her family and the
“starving Pueblo” (par. 27). This example shows that sensuality is also an important part of her
internal beauty: “the beauty of [Yellow Woman’s] passion, her daring” can save people when
“catastrophe is imminent” (par. 26).
 Differentiation Consideration: If students struggle with this question, consider asking the following
questions:
How does Yellow Woman’s “fearless sensuality result[] in the salvation of the people of her
village” (par. 27)?
 Yellow Woman’s “fearless sensuality” is the reason she unites with Buffalo Man, which in turn
leads to the “Buffalo People agree[ing] to give their bodies to the hunters to feed the starving
Pueblo” (par. 27). Had she not been fearlessly sensual, the Pueblo would have starved.
What is the meaning of sensuality in this context?
 Because Silko is referring to Yellow Woman’s union with Buffalo Man, sensuality means the
pursuit of sexual pleasure.
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NYS Common Core ELA & Literacy Curriculum
Grade 12 • Module 1 • Unit 2 • Lesson 5
 Consider drawing students’ attention to their application of standard L.11-12.4.a through the
process of using context and word parts to make meaning of a word.
How does the story of Yellow Woman’s “fling” with “Whirlwind Man” relate to the story of her
interaction with “Buffalo Man” (par. 27–29)?
 In both these stories, Yellow Woman’s “vibrant sexuality benefits her people” (par. 29). Her
relationship with Buffalo Man allows her to provide food for her starving people. Similarly, her
relationship with Whirlwind Man produces twin boys who become “great heroes of the people”
(par. 29).
How does Silko relate Yellow Woman’s adventures to her own story (par. 30)?
 Silko writes that “sometimes an individual must act despite disapproval, or concern for
appearances or what others may say” (par. 30). The stories of Yellow Woman helped Silko
become comfortable with herself and her own strength and beauty.
How does Yellow Woman’s beauty relate to the beauty of “all women” (par. 32)?
 Yellow Woman “is beautiful because she has the courage to act in times of great peril, and her
triumph is achieved by her sensuality” (par. 32). Silko states that courage, harmony, and
sensuality are beautiful qualities “of the spirit,” and implies that all women have them, and are
all therefore beautiful (par 32).
How does the title of this essay relate to paragraphs 26–32?
 The title of this essay, “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit,” is given complete meaning in
the final paragraphs. Silko states that beauty has to do with internal qualities as well as the
actions one takes. She uses Yellow Woman as an example of how this beauty looks in the world
and, therefore, completes her definition of beauty: a beauty “of passion” and “strength” (par.
26), as well as “fearless sensuality” (par. 27) and “courage” (par. 32). In the end, Silko is
primarily concerned not with physical beauty but with “a beauty of the spirit”: passion, strength,
courage, and sensuality.
Lead a brief whole-class discussion of student responses.
Activity 4: Quick Write
15%
Instruct students to respond briefly in writing to the following prompt:
Analyze how Silko uses and refines the meaning of the term beauty over the course of the text.
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NYS Common Core ELA & Literacy Curriculum
Grade 12 • Module 1 • Unit 2 • Lesson 5
Instruct students to look at their annotations to find evidence. Ask students to use this lesson’s
vocabulary wherever possible in their written responses. Remind students to use the Short Response
Rubric and Checklist to guide their written responses.
 Students listen and read the Quick Write prompt.
 Display the prompt for students to see, or provide the prompt in hard copy.
Transition to the independent Quick Write.
 Students independently answer the prompt using evidence from the text.
 See the High Performance Response at the beginning of this lesson.
Activity 5: Closing
5%
Display and distribute the homework assignment. For homework, instruct students to respond briefly in
writing to the following prompt:
Analyze how Silko provides a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced,
observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.
 Consider drawing students’ attention to their work with W.11-12.3.e as they analyze Silko’s
conclusion.
In addition, instruct students to look over their notes and annotations in preparation for the End-of-Unit
Assessment.
 Students follow along.
Homework
For homework, respond briefly in writing to the following prompt:
Analyze how Silko provides a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced,
observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.
In addition, look over your notes and annotations in preparation for the End-of-Unit Assessment.
File: 12.1.2 Lesson 5, v2 Date: 4/30/2015 Classroom Use: Starting 5/2015
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